Department of Financial Aid

"The staff at the counters for check in are wonderful and patient BUT the financial aid advisors are many times wrong. They do not look into answering your questions fully. I have never met with the same advisor twice and every answer to the same question is different. On the phone they sound annoyed and astounded you dont know the answer. I have asked for explanations for decisions on financial aid, on aid requirement, and on being told the wrong thing so many times and its been dismissed everytime. I genuinely look into transferring thats how horrific the FinAid advising is. I have lost scholarships over being told the wrong thing, though ignorant on my part to believe them. If they dont know the answer they are clueless and cant tell you what office to go to to find the answer. Most disappointing experiencew i have ever had with any office ever. I feel horrible for the advisors lacking guide, and even worse for every student that asks for their help. EDIT: A year later and honestly they might be significantly worse. Totally inept and actually hang up if you call them with questions they don’t know. At this point close the office"

"Everyone that I have spoken to at both campuses has been really nice and helpful. The problem is once I leave. The info that I get is either incorrect or incomplete and leaves me in a total bind. They also blame everything on the government even when it's clearly a lack of communication between offices. You also never actually speak to anyone in financial aid which might explain why the information I do receive is inaccurate."

"Honest to god the most incompetent group of staff I’ve ever come across. This school claims that supposedly FAFSA verification is done through a random selection however somehow I’ve been subject to do so in every single semester in this college (including summer classes) to show verification. I’ve been on the phone on hold for 3 hours now and I’ve had to wait several days to even get a response on the myhelp desk despite their voice messages stating it’ll be responded in less then 24 hours. These people literally told me to make an EFC appeal however this appeal is only used for individuals who’ve had a family emergency or change of income etc., however mine is due to inaccurate info on my FAFSA which would make the appeal not suitable for my issue. The staff have literally lied to me through as they claim that my FAFSA was submitted by the college in August 13th in a email sent me today(which the reply took 4 days to get) but a quick log in into my FAFSA website shows they submitted my application at the 20th. The staff have also lied stating that their would be instances where I wouldn’t receive aid due to miscellaneous reasons only to get a aid in a span of several weeks or days. Although I am not complaining about receiving aid and am happy to have it, it would a LOT of stress and time if the staff were actually knowledgeable and knew what they were talking about. IF THE STAFF DOESN’T KNOW THE ANSWER TO MY ISSUES PLEASE DO NOT GIVE ME INACCURATE RESPONSES OR LIES. These are the consistent issues I’ve ran into for the past 5 semesters and 1 summer semesters I’ve attended. I hate this part of GSU, it’s almost just as bad as those dept of transportation guys."

"The Dep of Financial Aid at Georgia Southern is failing its students. They are a vital part of student success, yet refuse to help students. I have been trying to contact them about a serious and time sensitive situation. All means of communication with the office was shut down (on a day of a financial aid deadline), besides email. I resorted to email because I could not get ahold of them any other way. They have still refused to communicate with me on the issue. Financial Aid is an important part of a students education, and when a student needs their assistance it shouldn’t take over a week, most issues are time sensitive. If Georgia Southern wants student success, it needs to make improvements to the financial aid department."

"Prior to the merger, I had no issues with GA Southern's Financial Aid Department. After the merger, however, I have experienced incredible unprofessionalism including no response to emails, no answer for phone calls, and features that are not available during the posted hours of operation. Aside from other issues that come with being an Eagle, dealing with Financial Aid makes me regret attending this institution."